Kobe Announces He Will Retire After This Season

I guess the Star Wars clip called it. Dang I'm good.

On a serious note, I hope he finds a way to stay healthy and productive the rest of the year. More so than what we've seen so far.

 

So this is it ... I really hope he is able to suit up on April 13th as I'll be there in attendance for my first Laker Game.

There goes someone I admired and who's basically my childhood hero ... I really hope he can somehow have one or two Kobe moments this season. A game where his threeball is falling or his body feels a lot better and he can just put up a show.

 

Kobe :'(

I know I've been hard on you this season. Maybe I kept you at a critical distance because it would hurt less, knowing you'd be gone soon. Maybe it would make it easier to say goodbye if I just found ways to hate the way you were playing. I think it was a little selfish. It seems I was paying too much attention to Kobe the basketball player, and not Kobe the human being. Because you are human after all.

But all it is...it's life. Time waits for no man. It caught up to you and I really shouldn't fault you for that. I applaud you for trying to come back from an injury that most men would be defeated by. I applaud that the game meant so much to you that you didn't want to walk away without trying to stay on the court. Out there where you felt so alive. I applaud that you seem to love us as much as we love you. Seems like I didn't really think about how much you didn't want to say goodbye either.

You will never be forgotten, one of the greatest to play the game, the greatest Laker perhaps ever. You were the fiercest competitor and most driven person I've ever seen in my life, some would say to a fault. But you managed to turn that pathology into purpose. I doubt I'll see another player so fanatically motivated. Thank you for spoiling us for almost two decades with indelible Laker memories.

I think you can finally look back on all that you've accomplished now, and revel in it in a way that might have seemed unimportant to you before. I hope you finish the season healthy, on your own terms, and more importantly happy.

Seriously, stop jacking up 3's though. You're playing like a goddamn fool recently.

Love,
Me

 

Everybody summed up my thoughts so eloquently. Been a heck of a ride.

Thank you Kobe Bean Bryant...thank you!

 

We all knew one way or another this would have been it for the Mamba. But it feels so much different when he made it official.

I feel so sad.

It's been one hell of a ride for the past 20 years with the Mamba.

 

I edited my sadface post on the previous page. Kobe deserved more than just an emoticon from me so I wrote him a farewell love letter. Love ya Bean, the game won't be the same without you.

 

NO CHOOK. DON'T YOU DO THIS TO US TOO.

*looks for a ledge*

 

I'll always have the memories, Thank you Kobe! Hopefully we can salvage the rest of the season to make it somewhat enjoyable.

 

The only day that will be worse in terms of the Lakers this season will be the last game when he hangs them up. Sad day knowing that one of the greatest that will ever do it says he is going to hang them up. Hopefully he still has a few more vintage Kobe games left in him this season.